Of Shakespeare And Winter Cheer
by Carly-M
Summary: The community college is hosting two holiday parties on the same night, preventing Jeff & Annie from seeing one another. (Or: Romeo & Juliet, the Greendale version).


**Notes:** This was written for the Secret Santa fic exchange at Milady/Milord. The prompt was: Wintertime. Fluff. J/A are either together or get together in fic.

I wrote this before I'd seen the new season five episodes (and what Professor Hickey was like). For the sake of the timeline I'm just going to pretend that Jeff came back to Greendale around September last year.

* * *

_Two parties, both alike in indignity,  
__In fair Greendale, where we lay our scene._

The school cafeteria looked as though Las Vegas had seduced winter, knocked it up and had a lovechild. Every inch of space had been enthusiastically adorned with shiny, flashy holiday decorations just daring you _not_ to have a good time. In the middle of it all stood Annie Edison, proudly surveying her work as more students arrived for the party. "Welcome to Greendale's first annual Sweater Soiree," she beamed, offering Annie Kim and her cronies some snowflake cookies from a platter, which they promptly ignored. "The _only_ place to be tonight."

"I'd like to wager you're wrong," said Professor Duncan, sauntering over to her. "I'd also like to wager that a party without alcohol is the very definition of _lame_. Nice sweater puppies by the way."

Annie glanced down at her red knitted cardigan with silhouettes of white dogs on it. "I knew I should have gone with the snowman," she muttered, before fixing Duncan with a withering look. "Well, I'd like to wager no one asked you, _buster_." She faltered slightly. "I mean, Professor… Buster."

"Don't give him the satisfaction of bowing down, Annie," said Britta, appearing beside her friend. "Does the hot chocolate need a little vodka? Of course it does, we're not wild animals. But this party is far from the douche-a-thon happening in the teachers' lounge right now."

"Excuse me, but we have sexy elf dancers," Duncan retorted. "Well, it's actually just the Dean in one of his outfits making everyone particularly uncomfortable, but Winger being invited this year will really take the heat off the rest of us." He reached out to steal a cookie but Annie swatted his hand away.

"What are you even doing in here if you hate it so much?" said Annie, pointing towards the exit. "I'm sure your next bender awaits you."

Duncan folded his arms defiantly. "Nice try, but I've already _been_ on my next bender for two hours now. And FYI, you might want to shut down the rumor floating around about this place being covered in white powder, because people are going to be _pretty_ pissed off when they find out it's fake snow." He rubbed his nose. "Anyone up for a rap battle before I skedaddle?"

"Sure thing, home-dawg," said Leonard, taking a cookie from Annie's platter. "Beat this." He poked out his tongue, blurting it in Duncan's direction.

Disgusted, Duncan wiped flecks of spit off his cheek. "Did you blow a raspberry at me, sir?" he asked furiously.

"I did blow a raspberry at you. And there's more where that came from."

"Are you seriously going to blow raspberries at me like a five-year-old in a sandpit?"

"Takes one to know one."

"Shut up, Leonard," Duncan replied, "everyone knows you're… old." He stood there in awkward silence before pathetically knocking the cookie out of Leonard's hand. "Boo-yah!"

"Oh it's on," gruffed Leonard, slowly pushing up his sweater sleeves while Duncan attempted to spar with him. "It's on like backgammon."

Rolling her eyes, Britta turned towards Annie. "One of us should really break this up before Leonard knocks him out or they start singing show tunes…" She paused, realizing her friend had disappeared. "Annie?"

Escaping down the hallway, Annie quickly let herself into the empty Biology classroom, still clutching her tray of food. Taking a few deep breaths, she walked over to the large fish tank sitting on the bench and stared inside. "I know how you feel, little guy," she sighed, as a small blue fish darted around manically while the other creatures listlessly floated by. "But you just keep on swimming or else another fish is going to come along and steal your holiday thunder."

"Funnily enough that's my stripper name for my Christmas revue."

Annie smirked as she saw Jeff's face appear in a slightly warped fashion on the other side of the tank. "What a shame I haven't bought any tickets yet."

"You'd better hurry, 'An Angel Gets Its Winger' is on for a limited time only."

"I'll be sure to get front-row seats." Annie straightened up so she could see Jeff properly over the top of the aquarium as he did the same. "Shouldn't you be at your fancy party with all your teacher friends?" she teased.

"I could say the same for you," he replied, leaning against the bench and crossing his arms. "Didn't you tell me the other day that your party was the be-all-and-end-all to your student body president re-election campaign?"

Nodding, Annie stepped around to mimic his position against the bench, placing the tray down behind her. "I'm doing my best to get everyone into the holiday spirit but it's kind of hard when Leonard and Duncan are re-enacting a really sad version of Fight Club." Her face clouded over. "Plus my opposition keeps skulking around just waiting to ruin everything."

"Ahh, the Annie Kim nemesis battle of 2013 continues." He tilted his head thoughtfully. "Did we settle on Ebenezer or The Grinch as her code name?"

"Right now I'm going with 'that stone cold bitch'." She hid a smile a Jeff laughed. "It has a nice ring to it don't you think?"

Jeff gave her arm a gentle nudge with his elbow. "Need me to step in and go all Professor Winger on her ass?" He let out a noise of disgust. "Ugh, four months on and it _still_ makes me sound like I teach at Hogwarts."

"That's OK," she chuckled, "I can handle her myself. But thanks for the offer." Glancing at her watch, Annie sighed. "I guess I should go back."

"And I guess I should actually make an appearance in the teachers' lounge," Jeff replied, neither of them moving. "It feels kind of weird attending a Greendale party without you guys."

"Same," said Annie. "Nobody's even made fun of the banner yet."

"Oh you mean the 'Greendale's First Annual Sweater Soiree: Come and celebrate some non-denominational winter fun! (Belief in winter also not a pre-requisite)' banner?" he replied, raising an eyebrow. "Because it's very succinct."

"You know the Dean," said Annie. "Politically correct to the point of ridiculousness." She glanced up at Jeff. "You can always stop by if you want?"

He gave her a rueful look. "You know how most of the other teachers are. They already think it's weird how much time I spend with students who aren't actually in my class."

"They need to realize we're not just any old students," she huffed. "We're your friends."

"I know. And I've explained that to them multiple times. But they don't tend to take me seriously when I'm dressed as a Dungeons and Dragons character." He paused. "Or a Smurf."

Annie's eyes lit up mischievously. "Need me to step in and go all student president Edison on their ass?"

"Yes, yes I do," he solemnly replied. "Anyway I don't think I'd be allowed into your party to begin with."

"Why?"

"Because this body is allergic to hideous sweaters," he grinned, laughingly defending himself against the punch being thrown his way. "Hey, you weren't supposed to go President Edison on _my_ ass."

"My jurisdiction my rules," she replied sweetly, before her face fell. "Probably not for much longer, though. I really should get back to the cafeteria and make sure Annie Kim hasn't poisoned the hot chocolate."

"If she has make sure you keep me some," Jeff replied. "Might give me a way out of a festive lap dance from the Dean." They reluctantly began to move towards the doorway. "I guess I'll just see you tomorrow then?"

"Yeah," said Annie, biting her lip. "I guess."

He bent down and kissed her on the cheek. "Enjoy your party, Milady."

She smiled, giving his arm a squeeze. "You too, Milord."

They parted ways down the hallway. "Careful you don't drown in ugly sweaters," he called out over his shoulder.

"Careful the Dean doesn't show you _his_ holiday thunder," she retorted.

"… I'm gonna need that poison sooner than I thought."

* * *

"Great party, Annie," said Troy, shoving a handful of cookies into his mouth. "I didn't know you were letting the Glee club perform. That's… awesome."

"I needed their votes," Annie admitted, doing a double take at what her friend was wearing. "Troy why do you have a Halloween sweater on with gift bags stuck to it?"

He frowned. "I'm the ghost of Christmas presents."

"… Do you mean the ghost of Christmas _present_?"

"Annie," he chuckled in a 'don't be stupid' fashion, "I think I know what type of ghost I am."

Before she could reply, Shirley came rushing over to them. "Oh thank goodness I found you, sweetie," she said, clutching Annie's arm. "There's something wrong with your snow machine."

"Wrong how?" she panicked, letting Shirley drag her over to the corner near the windows where the machine had been pumping out fake snow. Or at least it had been until someone had shoved what looked like a mixture of tinsel, marshmallows and plastic cutlery inside, clogging it up. "Oh my God, the rental place is going to kill me."

"Who would do such a thing?" said Shirley, shaking her head. "I knew you should have let me sneak in a nativity scene. Little baby Jesus has eyes everywhere."

"I don't think that would have helped, Shirley," she sighed, turning the power off at the wall.

"I'm serious," Shirley said ominously. "The nativity out the front of my church was always getting messed around with so the pastor installed a nanny cam." She shook her head in distaste. "Baby Jesus saw a _lot_ of things last year that a little baby don't need to see."

Annie glanced up just in time to find a conceited face staring at her from across the room. She scowled as Annie Kim threw in a little wave for good measure. "It's OK, Shirley," she said through clenched teeth. "I think I have a pretty good idea of who sabotaged me."

* * *

Professor Duncan stumbled over towards Jeff, who was sitting by himself on a pleather sofa in the lounge. "All right there, Winger?" he said, plonking himself down and nearly spilling two drinks in the process. "You're missing out on the beer pong. Except we don't actually have any balls to play with, so it's beer office stationery instead."

"Sounds thrilling," drawled Jeff. "I think I'll pass."

"Come on, don't be such a negative Nancy," Duncan replied, waving his plastic cups around. "Drink up, have some fun, drink up."

Jeff raised his eyebrows. "Three _very_ compelling reasons, but I'm not really in the mood for your paperclip beer."

"Oh this isn't for you," he said, downing both drinks in one go before pumping his fists in the air. "I am so drunk and lonely!" he cheered, getting to his feet. "Garrity! Give me those staples you crazy bastard!"

Hearing his phone beep, Jeff took it out of his pocket, smiling when he saw a message from Annie. _How bad would it be to murder your nemesis during a holiday party? Asking for a friend… _Chuckling, he typed back a response. _Make sure your friend has an alibi and she'll be fine. Or _he'll_ be fine. This is very ambiguous after all._

"Something funny, Winger?"

Jeff quickly shoved his cell away as Professor Hickey sat beside him. "Just one of those Grumpy Cat memes."

Hickey glowered at him in disinterest. "Never heard of it."

"Maybe because you're living it," Jeff murmured, before faking a smile.

"Must be good whatever it is," Hickey continued, "that's the first time I've seen you look alive all night."

Jeff shrugged. "I'm not really into the party scene around here. Truthfully, I'd rather be at home right now with a glass of Rosaline whiskey and some crappy TV."

Hickey lifted his chin in suspicion as Jeff's phone chimed. "Are you sure you don't mean you'd rather be with your old study group? Or that brunette one you're always eating lunch with? You should really keep your professional boundaries you know."

"What? Pftt, _you ackin' cray cray_," Jeff blustered, quickly checking his new message. "I'm just gonna go to the bathroom," he said, typing out a response as he stood up. "I'll be right back." He paused. "And if I ever say the words 'ackin' cray cray' again I give you permission to hurt me."

* * *

Annie crept through the empty hallway, expecting to be caught out for abandoning her party at any moment. "Jeff?" she hissed. "Jeff? Where are you, Jeff?"

"Up here," he whispered from the top of the stairs. "Sorry, I had to hide," he added as she climbed up to meet him. "The Dean must have done a costume change in his office and nearly saw me." Jeff motioned them towards a bench just around the corner so they could sit. "So… you're having fun I take it?"

"If this were a prom I would have totally Carrie'd it by now," Annie replied, eyes ablaze.

"Wow, when you get a nemesis you really get a nemesis."

"It's not just her, it's _everyone_," she groaned, leaning back to rest her head against the wall. "Here I am trying to do something nice, and yes, score some points, but all the students can do is complain! _Annie these cookies have too much sugar_," she mimicked in a whiny high-pitched voice. "_Annie my hot chocolate tastes like garlic_. _Annie you're being really offensive to people who don't like sweaters_." She let out a frustrated growl, burying her face in her hands.

Jeff wrapped his arm around her shoulders, pulling her in for a side-hug. "We are in a school filled with crazy people."

"I know."

"… Did they mean _all_ sweaters were offensive or just themed ones? Because that I can understand." He bit back a laugh as she kicked his leg. "If it's any consolation my party isn't going any better. Hickey's already given me his 'boundaries' speech again."

"He's the worst," Annie muttered. "Everyone's the worst. We should just… run away together."

Jeff trailed his hand up and down her arm. "Just for tonight or something more long-term? Because I really need to know how much face moisturizer to pack."

She laughed, tilting her head up to look at him. "You really need to stop being prettier than me, it's very bruising to the ego."

"Somehow I don't think that will ever happen," he said, giving her a soft smile.

"Jeffrey are you out here somewhere?"

Jeff froze at the sound of the Dean's voice, feeling Annie tense beside him. "I swear that man planted a homing device on me," he muttered.

"We're giving out presents and there's a big one with your name on it!" the Dean called out enticingly.

"Ten dollars says the present is actually him," Annie murmured, holding back a giggle when Jeff frowned at her.

"Well I'm glad to see I could cheer you up," drawled Jeff, carefully disentangling himself from her. "We better split up before we're seen. You go that way and I'll cut through some classrooms."

Smoothing down her sweater, Annie stood and took a deep breath, squaring back her shoulders. "Right. I can do this."

"Yes you can," he affirmed.

"But on the off chance that I can't the escape plan still stands, yeah?"

"I'll pack a whole case of face cream."

* * *

Britta paced outside the cafeteria doors, eyes widening when she saw Annie approach. "Hey girlfriend!" she greeted in a faux-cheerful manner. "What's been happening? Wanna hang?"

"Britta why are you talking to me like a 90s sitcom?" Annie asked suspiciously. "And why are you attempting to casually block the entryway by fake stretching?"

Sheepish, Britta dropped her arms down to her sides. "OK, cards on the table, it's pure anarchy in there. And usually I'd be all up for that, but not when it's against one of my friends." She flinched. "And not when they're going to get crazy eyes like you are right now…"

Curling her hands into fists, Annie barged past the blonde. "What has that stone cold bitch done now?" she growled, pushing open the doors to find she'd been well and truly punked. Britta came to stand beside her as she gaped at all the 'Vote for Annie Kim' posters that had been draped over her decorations. "How in the hell did she have time to do this? I was only gone five minutes!"

Garrett walked past with an oversized snowflake cookie that wasn't from the original platters, causing Annie's rage to grow. "She's trying to out-cookie me too? Garrett you put that down right…."

"Imma let you finish," he interrupted. "But Annie Kim has the best cookies of all time!" His eyes bulged out behind his glasses. "_Of all tiiiiiiime_!" he screeched, pumping his fist in the air.

Shirley, Troy and Abed appeared next to Britta as they tried to carefully gauge Annie's next response. "What does it mean when her face turns purple you guys?" Troy whispered loudly.

Annie remained eerily quiet, only moving when her phone beeped in her hand. She swiped the screen to read another message from Jeff. _Spoiler alert: the Dean's gift _was_ his holiday thunder. EVACUATION PLAN IS GO. I'm coming to see you, boundary crap be damned._

"I told you Annie had been sneaking around meeting up with Jeff all night," said Abed, peering over her shoulder. "It's very Romeo and Juliet." He took in the state of the room. "If Romeo and Juliet were also a political thriller."

"Abed, it's not nice to read other people's messages," Shirley scolded, before edging closer to Annie. "But you better not be following in those crazy fools' footsteps," she warned. "They got married way too young."

Britta screwed up her nose. "But the death part doesn't concern you?"

"… Maybe purple means she's going to explode?" Troy pondered.

Ducking her head, Annie's shoulders began to shake up and down before a gurgle of laughter escaped from her throat. Jeff walked in through the doors just in time to see Annie burst into a fit of uncontrollable giggles.

"What'd I miss?" he asked the group in confusion, before noticing all the campaign posters.

"I think other Annie broke our Annie," said Troy.

"That conniving little…"

"I knew it!" the Dean cried out, appearing in the cafeteria closely followed by Professor Duncan and Professor Hickey. "I knew you didn't have to go to the bathroom again, Jeffrey."

"Here's cheers to not having a urinary tract infection," Duncan added, holding up his cup of beer.

"Come back to the teacher's lounge, Winger," Professor Hickey advised. "You don't need to be seen here."

Shrugging off Hickey's hand on his arm, Jeff frowned. "Actually I do." He moved closer to Annie, who was still giggling. "Are you OK? Your laughter says yes but the tinge of purple in your face is telling me to hide all the knives."

"Knives," Troy said, clicking his fingers. "Got it."

Annie Kim strolled over to them, flipping her hair over her shoulder. "Looks like you lose this round, Edison," she gloated. "There's only room for one Annie at the top of the food chain."

"All this wouldn't have happened if you didn't force sweaters upon us," a random voice called out from the crowd.

"Oh my God, THAT IS IT!" Annie finally yelled, causing the room to grow silent. "I have had enough of all of you! You know what? I used to think that being student president was a privilege, one that I had to uphold. But I couldn't think of anything worse than leading a bunch of ungrateful people who treat others with such disrespect. From now on I'll find better, more important causes to spend my time on." She started to unbutton her sweater, before peeling it off over her tank top. "Good luck with your campaign, Kim," she crowed, dropping her sweater to the ground in triumph. "Edison out!"

Annie Kim stared at her, laughing in disbelief. "I hope you know you just committed social suicide."

"I don't care," Annie shrugged. "I'm standing up for what I believe in. _Me_."

"And this is why I steer clear of students," Professor Hickey sighed, turning on his heel. "Come on, let's get back to the lounge… Winger?"

Ignoring the man, Jeff bent down to grab Annie's sweater before putting his arms into the sleeves. He eyed off the gawking crowd as he slowly did up the buttons, the small garment straining across his chest.

"Winger… don't."

The Dean snapped a photo on his iPhone before realizing Hickey was glaring at him. "How _could_ you, Jeffrey?" he gasped, before not-so-subtly taking another picture.

Jeff glanced at Annie, who was smiling at him, before addressing the cafeteria. "Ever since I've come back I've been told to act a certain way, but I've never been one for following the rules. Yes, I may be a teacher here now, but I don't believe there should be this great divide between faculty and students. We should be able to hang out with who we want – who's with me?"

He was met with a wall of silence before Leonard blurted out an extremely loud raspberry through one of the Glee club members' microphones, causing everyone to start yelling out their own disagreements.

"A plague!" Duncan yelled, crushing his cup in his hand. "A plague on all your genitals!"

Annie Kim grabbed the microphone off Leonard. "I just want to say, if I became your new student body president, I'd ensure we'd never have to suffer through another Jeff Winger speech ever again!"

"DOWN WITH SWEATERS!" a voice screamed.

Annie and Jeff gave each other a weary look. "You want to get out of here?" she asked.

"I thought you'd never ask," he replied.

* * *

Yanking the sweater off his chest, Jeff handed it back to Annie as they took a walk through the Greendale campus. "Sorry I stretched it."

"Are you really that sorry?" she asked with a smile, the top hanging a lot more loosely on her body. "I thought your mission in life was to rid the world of themed sweaters?"

"Yeahhhh, probably not that sorry," he grinned, looping his arm around her shoulders as Annie slipped hers around his waist.

"That's OK, I've got about ten more where this came from."

They slowly made their way past the library, down one of the paths. "So I guess we're social outcasts now," said Jeff. "Well, even more than we usually are."

Annie smiled, resting her head against his arm. "We can be outcasts together. I mean the plan to run away still stands, right?" she teased. "I'd suggest the circus but that's kind of clichéd. Plus I know how much clowns freak you out."

"As long as we can make a detour at a restaurant before we go."

"Sure. Senor Kevin's?"

He stopped walking, turning around so that he could wrap both of his arms around Annie. "I was thinking somewhere a bit nicer for our first date – preferably a place where you're not required to wear a novelty sombrero when you order a margarita."

A grin crept its way across Annie's face. "Our first date?"

"Oh you caught that bit did you?" he smirked. "Well, what do you say?"

"I say… yes." She played the collar of his shirt. "What brought this on?"

"Honestly? I've been wanting to do it ever since I came back." He shrugged one shoulder. "Probably even before then. But I was trying so hard to fit in that I forgot that I already belonged somewhere already."

Annie bit her bottom lip. "Think you're pretty smooth, don't you?" she teasingly replied.

He chuckled. "Is it working?"

"What do you think?" she murmured, bringing his head down so she could kiss him.

Jeff pulled her in closer, threading his fingers through her hair before he felt something fall on his face. He reluctantly tilted his head back. "Don't tell me it's actually snowing here?"

"Oh no," Annie gasped, twirling around to look up at the open cafeteria window. "Someone turned the snow machine back on and aimed it outside!"

Frowning, Jeff plucked a piece of plastic off Annie's shoulder. "Is that half a fork?"

"_Yeahhhh_, we better go before we get pelted with a barrage of crap." She grabbed his hand, dragging him away from a tinsel missile. "So," she said coyly. "When do I get to see a preview of your Christmas strip-a-thon show?"

"How rude. I never strip and tell on a first date."

"Second?"

"And all the dates after that," he replied, leaning in for another kiss.

_And thus the relationship was explored,  
__Of a certain Milady and her Milord._


End file.
